Berries, bear poop, mushrooms & Fall colors

HighDesertWalker

HighDesertWalker

Joined
Mar 11, 2008
Messages
1,357
Still pushing my way farther up the Quemazon Trail. Made it from 7000 ft to 9500 ft on a 10 mi round trip yesterday. Took me 5 hours.

Lots of berries around:

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I think these are rose hips:

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Around these parts, where there's berries there's ..... :

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These are big ones. The basket on my treking pole is about 2" across.

Found another large mushroom. This one's is 4" across the cap:

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Here's a look at the underside:

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Does anyone know this species?

The Gambel's Oak and Aspen along the trail are changing color:

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Finally, we're above the burn and walking through a Ponderosa Pine forest:

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Still higher, I can see Pajarito Mountain Ski Area on the other side of Los Alamos Canyon:

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Pajarito Mtn. crests at 10,400 ft.

The next mountain along the way has a golden swath of Aspen on it's north slope:

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Far enough for today. On the way back down I photographed the rock laden root structure at the bottom of a large Ponderosa Pine blowdown:

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Notice the amount of rock that has been ripped from the ground by the roots. This structure is about 8' across.

Good workout. Next time I'll go all the way up to Guaje Ridge at about 10,000 ft. That will be sufficient to prepare me for the GC as long as I continue to repeat the hike at least once a week.
 
Love ya pics as always bro !!!

Was that your granola bar ya dropped on the 3rd pic !!!!!!
 
Thanks for sharing great pics.
I wish I could go out for walk, watching birds and have some lunch. sigh.
 
Great pictures. I look forward to the change of colors each year. Around my parts only the non-indigenous decoration trees are changing, the native trees are still green. My dumb decoration horsechestnut always drops its leaves around the first of Sept. even though I'm still cutting the grass. It must be a photoperiod cue for it.
 
Trent Rock said:
A store in Chama was selling Rose Hips jam :eek:
Could it be chokecherry?
http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Tree Enlarged Photo Pages/padus virginiana.htm
Click to expand...

Turns out jam is made both from rose hips and chokecherry. The saw edged leaves associated with rose hips are a giveaway for identification. Here's an internet link:

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/wildrose.html

Also, the rose hips occur at the end of stems and have some sort of bud growing out from the other end.

Still, I've seen several other types of berries around hear, and chokecherries are sure to have been among them. Here's a quote from your link:

Chokecherries are a vital wildlife food in the mesa and low mountain country of the Southwest with berries eaten by birds, bears, chipmunks, and human beings. Chokecherries were very important in the diet of the Anasazi and other native people.

Thanks for your interest. :thumbup:
 
fujita yuji said:
Thanks for sharing great pics.
I wish I could go out for walk, watching birds and have some lunch. sigh.
Click to expand...

I guess you have to wait for the weekend to get out of the city. Had a friend from Kyoto when I lived in San Diego. We used to drive almost 2 hrs to get into the Cuyamacas for hiking on the weekend.

Get out of that office and take a trek soon. :thumbup: I'm familiar with national institutes too; they do have a way of cramping your style. :(
 
HighDesertWalker said:
Turns out jam is made both from rose hips and chokecherry. The saw edged leaves associated with rose hips are a giveaway for identification. Here's an internet link:

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/wildrose.html

Also, the rose hips occur at the end of stems and have some sort of bud growing out from the other end.

Still, I've seen several other types of berries around hear, and chokecherries are sure to have been among them. Here's a quote from your link:

Chokecherries are a vital wildlife food in the mesa and low mountain country of the Southwest with berries eaten by birds, bears, chipmunks, and human beings. Chokecherries were very important in the diet of the Anasazi and other native people.

Thanks for your interest. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Look at the environment in which it is growing. Chokecherries are commonly found in clearings or in open sunny forests and they are often one of the first species to move in after fire or logging. While chokecherries sometimes grow alongside streams, they also require well-draining soil and they do not tolerate flooding. They will grow in all soil types except for very heavy clay. Step2
Examine the tree's structure. Chokecherry trees rarely reach more than 20 feet tall and trunks are no thicker than 6 inches in diameter. Chokecherries are most often found growing in dense, shrubby thickets.
Step3
Feel the bark. Chokecherry bark is smooth, although it may be scaly and rough near the base of the tree, and may be slightly peeling. The bark is greyish red in color, with darker horizontal lenticels.
Step4
Look at the leaves. Chokecherry leaves are flat, oval or oblong and toothed around the edge.
Step5
Examine the flowers or fruit. Chokecherry flowers and fruit grow in a long, bottlebrush-like cluster. The flowers appear in the spring and are small, white and have five petals. The fruit ripens in late summer. Chokecherries are deep red to purple and have a large pit inside of them.
Click to expand...

I mostly see chokecherry plants along the barbwire fence lines alongside dirt roads in the San Luis Valley

I think I am gonna buy some Gambel Oak and plant it on my property

Thanks for posting the pics!!
450 RT via America West
SBA to ABQ
I'm gonna try and make it in a few weeks
I gotta test out my Canon G9 in the SLV :cool:

Have you been to Santa Cruz?
Know of a good place to get chile verde in Santa Cruz??:eek:
I wanna go check it out
It was one of the biggest "cities" in early NM city
I know it's probably just another poor, NM village now
I still wanna check it out
Looks like they have a church I could take pics of :thumbup:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz,_New_Mexico
 
I always hesitate when it comes to plant identification in areas I'm not familiar with, but one noticeable difference between Rose (Rosa spp.) and Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) is that Rose has compound leaves, Chokecherry leaves are simple.

Doc
 
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